Normal Is An Illusion
by Reading-Is-Love
Summary: Mary thought she was a normal 14 year old. School, parents... But when she is suddenly hit with blinding headaches and dibilitating chest pain, nothing is normal. Especially when 6 strange kids come to her door and tell her she has to go with them. IggyOC
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, I just thought I would put something out there... A little prelude. So here we go!**

"Did you ever just wish you were different? Like, your life, or your friends? Most people do, and if you don't, then kudos, your life must rock. Well, I used to wish things were different, too. I was bored with my life and everything in it. My parents were annoying, I had homework all the time, random drama... The usual for a fourteen-year-old girl. Sometimes I look back and wonder, 'why did I ever wish any different?!' But then, I look around me at the sleeping shadows of my new best friends, spread my wings wide, and go for a soar."

**Do you like? Please please please review, it gives motivation to know i'm not just writing to myself...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, hello everyone, thanks for all the reviews! I definitely didn't expect 17 views within the first few hours. I know that probably doesn't seem like much, but it's a lot for me! This is only my second fanfic... Alrighty, before I start to bore you, here we go.**

Mary's POV: "Augh! You are such a freak, John!" I walked slowly back to the bench. "You barely even touched me. You know I was in, you just can't admit to being wrong!" Ugh, some people. I went over to the side of the kickball diamond and sat down on the hot metal bench. 8th grade was just coming to a close. In fact, there was only two days left. Whoops, excuse my horrible manners. My name is Mary, and I live in a boring little town in Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes... Whop-de friggin doo. Anyway, we are playing Core against Core kickball, and we are creaming them. Ha. That doesn't surprise me. Anywho... Nothing interesting ever happens here. The big event at school this year was Josie supposedly being pregnant. Supposedly. Isn't that sad? Usually when people ask me how my year went, I shoot back, "Well that depends, was this year really necessary? If so, then I guess I got through it. If not, I wish it'd never happened." Before you start making assumptions, I'm not usually this nasty. I'm just having a bad day. My head hurts a little... But I think that's just my body reacting to the sudden switch from desolate tundra to 80 degrees and sunny. "Hey Ma-wee, whats goin' on?" my friend Devin came to sit next to me to watch. "Hey Devin, ugh, did you see that crap call Mr. K. made?" He didn't even have a chance to answer before the bell on the side of the building rang, making my brain feel like it was rattling around in my skull. I groaned. Stupid head. Note to self, take a few ibuprofen when I get home.

**Well, its not very good. At all. Its just a first stab, and I was trying to intro the character... Please not too harsh with the reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Heyo! Well, I figure I should respond to a few reviews. To )(*wings*)( : it could really be any town I suppose, I live in a quickly growing town in MN, and it just seemed like the perfect setting to start out with. To lookingforthelight : yeah, I know... i'm just trying not to make them too long, and that last chapter was a whole page double-spaced on my OpenOffice. I'll eventually start making them a bit longer when other POVs come in too. Well off the the story we go!**

Mary's POV: Ugh. I hate the pool. Too much... Sun and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like sunshine as much as the next girl, but that dumb headache from yesterday never really went away. Actually, it'd gotten even worse. Quite frankly, I was laying on a pool chair with my head in my hands, pondering how much force it would take to snap my neck with a pool toy. Last night I'd had fever dreams; running through a dark forest, falling into scorching magma... Thank the stars it was almost time to go home. "Hey!" Oh, its Britney! Britney has been my friend since around first grade. She is usually pretty quiet and dark, but she has a totally different side too. We once threw big heavy rocks through the windows of one of the abandoned buses on her property. Ha, good times. "Hi..." I said blearily. It was a beautiful summer day, and everyone around me was having fun... Me, not so much. Last year, I practically lived at this pool. I swam like a dang fish. I swear I absorbed enough chlorine that, if someone lit a match too close anywhere from June to September, the house would blow. So this totally wasn't me. Duh. "Hey, is there something wrong?" Britney asked. Now something you need to know about me before we go any farther is that sarcasm is my native language. People tend to get sick of it, but that's their problem. So, naturally, I couldn't help myself. "Nope, its just kinda hot out here. Making sure my brain doesn't melt and ooze out my ears." She didn't look surprised at my retort. "Yeah, I guess that was kind of a stupid question, wasn't it?" Yep, here it goes again. "Naaw. Perfectly legit." She grinned. "So, am I still coming over tonight?" She asked with a hopeful look. Now, this was probably the fifth time she'd asked me today, so I was getting a little, how do we say... Irked? I sighed. "Ok, Brit, what was the answer half an hour ago?" I gave her a look over my dark glasses. Ah, Transitions, you've gotta love 'em. She half-smiled. "Ok, ok. I get it." She walked away. They sounded the air horn, signaling break time. Yay! Its time to go home! 8th grade is officially over, and I am a freshman!

**Ok, so i'm more proud of this chapter than the others... I don't really know why. I tried to make it a little longer, but it still isn't very long, I know. It'll come, all in good time. Thanks to loyal readers, it always makes me smile to read your reviews and whatnot, and I take every single one to heart.**

**-Mary**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers! Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote, but... I guess I just got lazy ^_^ Ok, so lets go for it.**

Mary's POV: When I got home after the pool party, I decided whoever invented central air deserves a hug. I splayed out on the floor and grabbed the remote. After Arthur was over, I couldn't handle the headache anymore. I stuck my head in the freezer, and when that didn't help, I took a few Advil. It barely dulled it. I picked up my cat and nuzzled his head. "Greg," I said out loud, "Its times like these that I'm glad I'm an only child." He looked up at me. "Mrow?" I giggled. "You've got that right."

Max's POV: "You're JOKING!? Is that even POSSIBLE??" For once in my life, I was completely dumbfounded. I hadn't been this confused since I was fighting Omega in Germany. "You mean, we aren't the only bird kids? That can't be possible!!" Fang looked at me patiently. "Yes, Max, now how about you QUIET DOWN!!" His yell echoed off the gray, snowy mountains surrounding us. I didn't even flinch. "Well aren't you even the least bit surprised about this? I mean, how did they escape The School? Are they related to us? Are th-" Fang cut me off. "Max! Get ahold of yourself!" I hadn't noticed I was shaking violently until he put his hands on my arms and squeezed them. He looked into my eyes, making me blush a deep red. Ugh. I hate it when that happens. "Everything will be ok, ok? We are going to Minnesota, and we are going to take them... Under our wings." I gave him a tired look. "Bad pun." I said in monotone. "Hey, I thought it was kind of funny!" The Gasman piped up. "Nobody asked you!" I snapped, then instantly felt awful about it. I walked over to Gaz and put my arm around him. "I'm sorry, Bud. I guess I'm just a little stressed right now. Nudge ran up to me and immediately started firing questions at me about the other bird kids. "Are they girls or boys? Are their wings like ours? How old are they? Do you think they have any chocolate? Are they-" "Nudge" Fang said. "These aren't our average, every-day bird kids we are dealing with here." I glared at him. "Average, every-day?" I asked in a sarcastic tone. He just ignored me. "All I know about them is that they are girls, they are 14, and they are in the most danger we have ever seen. They aren't technically bird kids yet. They are transforming. Tonight. If we don't get there before the whitecoats, they're dead dead dead." I was stunned into silence. "So they don't even have wings yet?" I asked in a small voice. "No. They have no way to get away from the whitecoats, or to fight back." Fang said in his no-nonsense voice. "They have an awful transformation coming. It's already beginning. We are going to have to fly our butts off and get to Minnesota as fast as we can. They are coming with us." New people in the flock? That made me nervous. I didn't trust these girls. Then something struck me. "Wait, how do you know about them?" I asked Fang. He grinned. "Confidential." Ugh! He knows that irritates me! Stupid Fang. Suddenly Angel's voice piped up from behind us. "SO, we're going to Minnesota?" "Yup." I said. "And I guess we're going now."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey. It's definitely been awhile. Sorry. I've had a lot of other things on my mind, and I guess it just slipped. I have a question. How do you make it double-spaced when it gets uploaded? Ok, so lets just jump in then.**

Mary's POV: Have you ever had a headache that makes you feel like throwing yourself out of a four story window over a concrete sidewalk? Oh, you have? Well... I guess we are on the same page then. It was 6:00 P.M. and my stupid headache still hadn't gone away. Also, I had taken a shower about an hour ago, and couldn't help but to notice that when I ran my hand over my back, there were two odd little cuts there, one on either side. "Huh." I thought. "I must have gotten that sliding into home on the third home run." And I dismissed it from my mind, more concerned with the mounting pressure in my head. My mom was in the kitchen, frying steak because it was only the two of us until Brit came. "Hey!" She yelled into the living room, breaking my thought pattern. "Um, yeah?" I yelled back. I hadn't told her about my headache, for fear she would make me cancel my night with Brit. "Do you want mushrooms with your steak?" She asked, walking into the room with a spatula in her hand. The smell of frying butter and meat usually made my mouth water like a river. But today, even her mentioning food made me queasy. "U-Uh, maybe later, ma." I said back weakly, turning my face away from her so she wouldn't see me gag. "Okey-dokey. Hey, is there something wrong?" It was just a question, but something in it made me suspect she already knew. Had I left the Advil out on the counter? Huh. "Um, i'm fine, ma. Really." I made myself sound as convincing as I could, which probably wasn't very. She turned to go back to the kitchen. "Ok... But you know you can tell me if there is anythi-" "I know, ma. I know." I cut her off. I know that probably wasn't very nice, I know she was only concerned, but I couldn't stand to listen to her being all... Worried. That always bothered me. People being worried about me, and people pitying me were two things I just couldn't stand. If only I would have enjoyed the parental worry a little more while I had it. Now I have only my friends, and I would give anything to have my mom ask one more time if I were ok, or have my dad feel my forehead, "just in case. You know you are around a lot of sick people all day, and I don't want you to get sick too." But those days are over. This is my life now, and I just have to make due.

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

Britney's POV: Ugh. I'm used to being sore from doing things, but my back has never been this sore. It's weird. It hurt to even move my shirt around, much less walk. But I really wanted to go to Mary's tonight... We hadn't had a sleepover in months, and hers were usually pretty fun. We stay up all night and talk, and play video games. That's all I need to have fun. But it looked like I might have to cancel. I walked/limped/crawled into my room, whimpering as I went. Now don't get me wrong, i'm no cupcake. I can handle pain with the best of them. I've broken bones without even crying, if that proves a little bit about how much this hurt. I grabbed a couple of the pain pills I had taken from my mom's medicine cabinet and decided to tough it out. So I flipped some clothes into a duffel bag, and tried to stand. But when I did, the room began to spin violently and I fell hard. Everything went dark, and I was falling... Falling... Falling....... SNAP!!! A loud thud rand through the air, followed by a steady beat of quieter thuds. I opened my eyes, and screamed as loud as my body would allow.


End file.
